Sanctuary and the Shadow of its Walls — Maxwell Alexandre’s first UK solo exhibition
- Anna Lilli Garai
- Sep 30
- 2 min read
Updated: Oct 2
Location: Delfina Foundation, London
Date: October 8 – November 23, 2025
Project: Sanctuary and the Shadow of its Walls — first UK institutional solo exhibition by Maxwell Alexandre
Why it Matters: Raises urgent questions about how sanctuaries are imagined, and who gets included or excluded from their protection
At Delfina Foundation, Brazilian artist Maxwell Alexandre presents his first institutional solo show in the UK, expanding his ambitious Clube series into new territory. Over the past five years, Alexandre has shifted from vivid portraits of Black community life in Rio de Janeiro to scenes from Flamengo, an elite sports club that sits beside Rocinha favela, where he grew up. The contrast — between sanctuary and precarity — drives this new chapter of his work.
For London, Alexandre transforms Delfina’s basement into a spatially charged environment. Large-scale oil paintings on pardo paper and linen hang within an almost theatrical scenography, balancing sunlit calm with the looming presence of walls. Figures drift through pools of light, architectural fragments frame their gestures, and shadows press in at the margins. The question is never just what sanctuary looks like, but who it is designed for — and what or who remains outside its bounds.
This exhibition arrives at a moment when Alexandre’s reputation is firmly international. From Palais de Tokyo to The Shed in New York, and the establishment of his own Pavilhão spaces in Rio, he has consistently pushed painting into dialogue with lived experience and collective structures. In London, that dialogue sharpens around the fragile idea of safety itself, reminding us that sanctuaries are always both protective and exclusionary.
